Formula 21
by Fogwood
Summary: In recent history, it has become necessary for vampires and humans to come to a kind of unpeaceful coexistence. Some, however, are unsatisfied with this situation and seek to bring about a permanent accord, an armistice of species, and they're not asking.
1. Chapter 1

_Vampires eat humans. In recent history, it has become necessary for the two to come to a kind of unpeaceful coexistence. There are those, however, who are unsatisfied with this situation and seek to bring about a permanent accord, an armistice of species, and they're not asking._

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She is young tonight. Looks barely twenty and not old enough to be sitting alone in a bar. She has her back to me and is playing with a curl, upsetting her ebony mane and sending a tantalising aroma in my direction. My throat is itching with thirst and the urge to slip into her neighbouring seat, lean over her neck and feel the delicious flavour of her life's blood is compelling. But the messiness such an action would cause in such a peopled location is an unnecessary complication. Besides which, it is a quirk of mine that I prefer to know something about my food, where it came from, what it likes, etc, before I sample it. It's just more comfortable. It's also more of a challenge.

Most humans have a natural aversion to vampires. It's a sensible fear, to be frightened of the monster at the very top of the food chain - especially when said monster's diet is restricted entirely to your own species. Sure, there are the weirdos who try to abstain from human blood, but they can't resist it for long. It's addictive yet nutritious, and I bet there aren't many things that fall into both those categories. Myself, I prefer female blood, young and - if I'm lucky - well educated. (I can't really explain why the latter makes such a difference, I mean, I'll take high school education, but there's almost an extra layer of flavour that comes from further study. Could be stress, libraries, bad posture, I don't know, but whatever it is, it's delicious.) And I know it's cliche, the big bad vampire thirsting after fresh, young womens' blood, but I can't help it. Maybe that's another reason I like to talk to my food - an unconscious desire to break through the image of "nasty old vampire". Not that I'm all that old. Ninety-odd years, though I was dead before my twenty-seventh birthday. But it must be said that ninety-odd years seducing girls has given me a bit of an edge over their natural aversion. Exhibit A.

I pick up the glass of scotch that I have no intention of drinking and make an effort to approach her slowly. I leave one seat between us on the bench - don't want to make her uncomfortable too soon. I pretend to take a sip and lower the glass, rolling it between my palms. She is looking at me out of the corner of her eyes. It's a strange conundrum, the relationship between humans and vampires. They are attracted by our beauty and yet instinctively afraid of us. I glance at her briefly, yet obtrusively enough that she must now think me interested but shy. She drains her glass and sets it down, biting her lip. Practically on cue, she turns her head and shoots me a look from beneath lowered lids. Definitely an invitation. But I adhere to the niceties. She accepts the offer of another drink. I don't even notice what she's drinking. My own drink is also forgotten. Well, the alcoholic one, at least. Introductions are next.

I am William - at least for tonight - and she's Mary. I don't know why I don't give them my real name. It's not like it would matter. This conversation will be Mary's last. She's a pretty one, definitely. Half Caucasian-half Asian by the looks of it. She's slim but of average height. Her hair is a fray of wild curls, the blackest black, striking against her pale skin and equally dark, slightly angled eyes. If there's one thing I've learned in nearly a century of eating humans, it's that the pretty ones are the sweetest. Their blood slips smoothly down your throat - but it's the smart ones that leave you heady. The allure of a combination thereof...

I sometimes wonder if other vampires have this notion of categorization among the human species. Or if, to their uneducated palette, all humans taste roughly similar. I've never really stuck around other vampires long enough to ask. I had a partner briefly in the fifties, but she became much too familiar and I had to leave her in Barcelona. As a vampire, I've never really desired another vampire. I only lust for human blood.

A thirst which is becoming nearly overwhelming at the moment. My mouth prattles on autopilot; I've learned that she's an English teacher with another degree in psychology, that she takes Tai Chi on the weekends, and that she enjoys flying kites and macrame. The latter being a pass-time which I had hoped dead since the seventies. She also tries to spend as much time as possible with her mother, who is in a care home and suffering from alzheimer's. I smile as though I'm paying attention, give her the Ivy league lawyer schpiel and consider leading her away immediately. She'd probably come without hesitation. It's kind of a gift I have; people find themselves loose of inhibitions after a few minutes in my presence. She might wonder, briefly, why she's following a complete stranger - or nearly - into a dark alley, but a larger part of her is under the influence of both alcohol and my unusual ability.

Now, in fairness, I'm usually a lot more attentive to my victims memoirs. But this girl just smells amazing. Imagine the most delicious thing you've ever tasted, increase the delicious factor two-fold, and then make it a smell so strong that every breath you take is saturated with it. Pretty damn hard to ignore in favour of small talk.

The part of me which is miraculously still resisting tearing her throat out tells her that I was born a Capricorn. This is also untrue. But in return she tells me that she's always wanted to go to France. It's her dream, she says, to open a bakery. I don't know how these two confessions are related, and am far beyond caring. Almost a century of practice asks Mary smoothly if she'd like to take our conversation somewhere more intimate. She blushes but accepts. The blood rushing to her cheeks makes my throat ache. She shoulders her bag and brushes her hair off her shoulder, dousing me with another whiff of her scent. I clench my jaw and stop breathing. This is the strongest temptation I've felt since I was a newborn. Every fiber of my being wants to bury my face in the crook of her neck, spectators be damned.

I lead her lightly by the elbow, only taking a breath to speak when I'm outside the bar and sure of less saturation in the air.

"Come with me," I whisper, and she does, naive little thing. I charge the autopilot to say something charming and a little naughty and she giggles, taking my arm of her own volition. Unfortunately this added closeness means that I have to stop breathing again. It's not necessary for survival, true, but it's usually useful to be able to smell, and talking comes in handy.

A few blocks from the bar I reach my intended destination. A short alley, more alcove than path, and blessedly secluded. I take a quick breath, stopping the process short, since I don't need that much air for my intended sentence.

"In here," I say, and take her hand, leading her into the darkness. Mary hesitates. No surprise, fear of dark, enclosed spaces is another instinctual fear for humans. But like their fear of vampires, it can be overcome.

I steel myself and lean over her, my lips brushing her ear. "Please? Just for a minute."

And just like that, her resolve disappears. She's breathless now. Well that makes two of us. Hers, though, is likely the thrill of attraction tinged with that of fear. Mine is a necessity - but not for long.

Two steps, three. Ten paces into the alleyway, I stop and inhale, letting my instincts take over. I should be at least a day before someone finds the corpse. My forearm is crushing her windpipe. I don't remember doing that, but it doesn't really matter. I'm no longer interested in playing the gentleman. A growl escapes and I take one last whiff of her, savouring the aroma.

"Smell something you like?" Mary's last words. Then confusion pricks its way through my frenzied blood lust. Humans don't talk while a vampire is crushing their windpipe. My teeth, halfway through a biting motion, hesitate. Two cool fingers reach up and snap my jaws shut. Cool? Nothing should feel cold to a vampire. Even the arctic ocean is bathtub temperature.

"Just hold on a moment, will you?" She firmly pushes my arm away. Something else no human should be able to do. Mary pauses, holding up her finger in indication that she'll only be a moment, and rummages around in her purse. My burning need to bite her hasn't faded, but it's taken second place to my curiosity about the only human to ever have enough presence of mind to postpone their immediate death. She brings out a little spray bottle and, grasping my chin and pulling down again, she compresses her finger twice. It tastes...minty.

"There we go. Halitosis is everyone's problem. Now, please continue." Mary sweeps her hair back and pulls it to one side, leaving her throat completely bare. She even obligingly tilts her head at the right angle. What the hell? Is she one of those humans obsessed with vampires? Taken in by the romance? How did she know? There's a small smile playing around her lips, and her black eyes are staring at me in fear... Wait. _Is_ she frightened? It's hard to distinguish the iris from the pupil in her obsidian gaze, but she looks almost triumphant. Does she really _want_ to be bitten? That's a little...sick.

I bare my teeth once more and lean in, but I'm somehow off balance, and I stumble. Her arms reach out to steady me, and I find that I don't have the strength to resist. What's happening to me? I feel drowsy in a way I have not since I was human, and can vaguely remember what it is like to lose consciousness. I feel something hard under me, and guess she must have lowered me to the ground, although all I can see is her face. So starkly pale in this half-light, framed by a dark halo. She looks like the angel of death.

"Don't worry," her voice says, "you're not lucky enough to be dying. You're only poisoned. Part sedative part...surprise. You may find your life a little different from now on, but, well..." she pauses, sounding pleased. All I can see now is her face, the blackness encroaching on my vision has swallowed her hair. I focus on her mouth as the shadows gain more ground and the sounds from the street fade to silence. Barely able to see it, I think her lips say: "I hear bear is tasty." A spike of confusion and doubt shoots through the fog before it swallows me whole and then there is no more.

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**Thoughts?**


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm approaching the doorway of an only slightly-crowded nightclub when I smell them. Three vampires, young, female. All are dressed flamboyantly and too scantily for the weather, though this is not a really telling factor, since there are plenty of human girls who would gladly defy the elements to bare an extra inch of skin. They're unfamiliar, but if they're hunting in a pack then they must be new to the city, since we've had no reports of mass killings or disappearances in the area and groups of three or more vampires - though rare - tend to create quite the dent in the surrounding population. So much for my free evening. I slow, and at ten paces stop and lean against the wall, nursing my latte. For now they may continue at their leisure; tonight they will be my prey._

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Too easy. It's always too easy. Vampires are so arrogant. Their perception of humans as an inferior species is, to my credit, always their downfall. I was a grad student - biochemistry - before I was changed. I was the girl everyone's parents but mine wanted them to be. I had perfect grades, new ideas, a long history of campaigning for human rights and a job at a women's shelter. The prof I was working under was researching allergies, and I had been a part of his lab since I was an undergrad. I was happy with my life - busy though it was, and spent all my spare moments going over data and plugging new simulations. I found nights the most peaceful time to work, and would often forego sleep in favour of another hour of analysis. That is without question the best part of being a vampire. When the pain was ended and I found that my body no longer hungered for sleep I was filled with possibilities. It wasn't until later that I learned that I was supposed to be filled, instead, with a hunger for human blood.

Oh, I had had a fairly good idea of what had happened to me. I am, after all, rather clever. No heartbeat, decreased enjoyment in regular food, pale skin that sparkles in the sunlight, and, after a time, no noticeable aging - I figured it out. I had never been particularly interested in my appearance, but even I couldn't fail to notice that I had become markedly more attractive. And yet I still didn't feel an inclination toward blood.

I continued working in the lab, explaining away my absence with a nasty flu, and refocused my night-time research on the differences in my new body. I was obviously still carbon-based, but my molecular bonds were radically different. I discovered that my skin had become impossibly dense, the tiny scratch left on my finger by a diamond knife was gone in seconds. I could see things - colours - that I'd never seen as a human, I could move incredibly fast, and I found myself not needing to breathe and able to remain underwater for hours on end. It was a fascinating study, but it was only when I encountered other vampires that my disinclination for blood began to strike me as truly odd.

I was walking to my car, careful to keep to a human pace, when I heard a snarl and fast footsteps approaching. A young man, obviously still a student, came running out from between two cars ahead of me looking like he had the devil on his heels. I caught his wrist and held on, though he had no chance of breaking away. I had intended to ask what he was running from, but his eyes rolled back in panic and he fainted. I lowered him to the ground and, after checking his pulse, stood to look in the direction he'd come running from. A man was loping toward me from where the boy had emerged, a low growl coming from the back of his throat. I could immediately smell the difference between the human boy at my feet and the man approaching. This was a vampire.

"That's mine." His voice was low and angry, and I understood instinctively that I'd come between him and his prey. Always the scientist, I was immediately curious about why he'd want to bite the poor boy. I hadn't yet concluded that I was a very different sort of vampire.

So I asked, naively, "Why would you want to eat him?"

The man looked at me as though I'd just asked him why the sun shines in the sky. "What are you playing at?" he demanded.

I held up me hands in an effort to come off as non-threatening. It's bizarre to recall my own ignorance. I tried to reason with him. "I mean, will he really taste that good? You've already scared him half to death, why don't you leave it at that?"

"Is this some kind of trick to steal my hunt?" He was crouched low, as though ready to attack me at any second.

I'm embarrassed to say that in my ignorance, I scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous, I don't eat people!" At which point I guess he'd finished hesitating, because he darted forward and leveled his shoulder with my stomach. There was a crack as loud as thunder when we collided, and I flew twenty feet and into an old Buick. Despite my previous assertions that Buicks are built to withstand anything, I hadn't been accounting for vampires. It crumpled like tinfoil and I became suddenly aware that I didn't know how to fight back. A few Tai Chi classes in high school didn't exactly qualify me to fight a full-grown vampire who, if humans were anything to gauge by, would undoubtedly be stronger than me. I didn't yet have any idea if there _was_ a way for vampires to be killed. Now that I was no longer between him and the boy, however, the vampire had lost all interest in continuing our fight. He obviously didn't consider me to be a serious threat; in retrospect, and looking at our conversation up until that point, I'll readily admit he was right. I'd been appallingly naive.

And so I watched the boy die. That he wasn't conscious to witness the last few minutes of his life was of small comfort.

When he was done, the vampire turned without sparing me a glance, and walked away into the shadows. I had never seen anyone die before. I wanted to cry then, and discovered for the first time that I could not. All the same, as I knelt before the corpse, there were silent, dry sobs in my throat. He would have looked asleep, were it not for the blood pooling at the base of his throat.

I don't know how long I sat there, looking at the boy, before I curiously dipped one finger into his congealing blood and brought it to my lips. It was toothsome. Pleasant, like it smelled. I tasted very little of the salt and iron that had been characteristic of blood when I was human, no, this was much more flavourful. Almost sweet with savoury undertones. I imagined, then, that a connoisseur might compare it to wine, but since I'd tried very little of either wine _or_ blood, I couldn't say. It slid easily down my throat and for a moment I thought I understood why vampires would drink human blood. It was satisfying. It filled a desire that I hadn't even known I possessed. But beyond my hand lay the body of the boy who had spent his last waking minutes rightfully terrified for his life, and I knew that I would never kill a human just to satisfy my own palate. I hadn't lost that much of my humanity.

From that moment on I threw myself into a solution. I'd never been one to sit idly by and watch a problem perpetuating. I attended my classes, worked harder than ever in the lab, and when that was finished, I had a handful of what my overseeing researchers knew as "special interest" projects. They didn't mind what I did in the middle of the night, so long as I didn't neglect the official research, and I never gave them reason to question anything besides my chronic "insomnia". Weekends I spent either in the lab or searching out other vampires and learning all I could about their strengths and weaknesses. I learned to fight. I learned about the Volturi, governing from Italy, and what were considered crimes in their eyes. I learned then that some vampires have gifts, or special abilities, and resolved to learn as much about these abnormalities as possible, though it would be years yet before I would come to any concrete conslusions.

I had been running into a wall for more than a month where vampires' special abilities were concerned when I was first mistaken for a human. It was a sunny afternoon, some eight or nine months after I'd been changed, I was wearing a large-brimmed sunhat and a light but opaque coat drawn tightly around me. My hands jammed into my pockets and my eyes firmly on the ground, I was so focused on remaining inconspicuously _human_ that I didn't notice the man with the umbrella until I walked into him. My first thought was to make sure my hat didn't fall off, and I steadied it with a gloved hand before looking him in the face. I was unconsciously apologizing when he began to turn on the charm.

It was one of the things I'd observed in other vampires; if they wish it humans, particularly the opposite sex, will become mindlessly obliging. It was understandable, from an evolutionary perspective. Humans are our - though I use our in a purely biological sense, since I feel very little fellowship with vampires - prey, it only makes sense that we be able to lure them in, but it was the first time I'd experienced it first hand. This fellow was attractive, to be sure, but no way was I could be mistaken for _this_ easy a catch. I thought maybe he'd caught a different scent than mine when we collided, because yes, it was a sunny day, but I was certainly not following him into that conveniently dark alley no matter how politely he asked or how charming his smile. I said as much and he frowned and then inhaled again and had the grace to look embarrassed, despite blushing being beyond his range of abilities.

"My sincerest apologies, Miss; I am mortified by the impropriety of my actions. Can I buy you a drink to alleviate my _assuredly_ unintentional insult?"

Though intrigued by the mistake, I waved his advances aside. The guy must have been changed a century ago, because it's a real turn-off being called Miss by anyone who doesn't look old enough to be my grandfather. "I think not. Neither of us would really enjoy drinking it, now, would we? And after your... proposal, I certainly won't be joining you for a drink of any other kind." One of the things I'd picked up is how vile-tasting most vampires find human food, and at that point I was doing my best to emulate a vampire who really did drink blood. "If I were truly upset I'd have stolen your umbrella and run off, sunlight be damned, but since you're not currently a beacon in the middle of Main, I suggest you let it go." And that was it. If I'd have had more presence of mind I would have accepted his offer if only to grill him on _exactly_ how he could have been mistaken about my species. In reality, however, it took me another few months before I realised the extent of my own abilities.

I met Teddy in the second year of my afterlife. I'd completed my graduate degree, but was holding for a time before I would begin a doctorate, or at least that's what I told my mentors. In reality I was beginning my own research into the biological systems of vampires, and that wasn't the kind of thing best suited to a human lab. I'd run into Ted one night while he was hunting humans and I was hunting vampires. I'd been collecting data and tissue fragments as inconspicuously as I could from as many samples as I could find, and he was next on my list. Although it didn't seem like it at the time, it was really rather fortuitous that he fell stupidly in love with me. Now typically vampires are reasonably intelligent creatures, or, at least, the intelligent ones are the only ones to make it through being new born. But where I was the exception to the "freshly turned" madness, dear Teddy must have been to intelligence. He was, in other words, the perfect tool.

Believing I was simply curious and naturally studious in response to the "wonder" of our species, Teddy was perfectly happy to be my lab rat. He was also entirely willing to eat only what I provided for him - all for the sake of science. What a lovestruck fool. I wonder now if his gullibility was a sort of gift - though for him or for me I don't know. After judiciously relieving the hospital of a sizeable quantity of blood (a crime I could more easily rationalise than harvesting it myself), I experimented with the vampire's diet of human blood. I discovered many fascinating things, the most important of which was that normal vampires don't die if they don't drink human blood. In fact, pig's blood, which costs peanuts down at the butcher's, achieves the same regenerative effects as human blood, just not at the same efficiency per volume.

It does, however, have a slightly different effect holistically. Since vampires are essentially dead, that means they have no ATP, no biochemical processes, and therefore no metabolism of any sort. There is obviously no energy to use and be lost to entropy, so essentially we should be unable to move. Well, they. I'm a drastically different case. Blood is what greases the wheels and allows vampires movement, cognition, and - on a slightly more philosophical level - humanity (although that last one's just a theory). Deprived of it, vampires decline into raving, incoherent beasts driven by nothing but bloodlust. I have another theory whereby if a vampire were to abstain from any kind of blood for a long enough period, they would actually cease moving, becoming nearly indistinguishable from stone. The process by which I've seen a few vampires killed only enforces this theory.

But I digress. Most pertinent was the fact that animal blood will keep a vampire alive and in perfect health indefinitely. I had been looking, up until this time, for a way to cease the slaughter of humans, and what I had discovered was that the continued existence of vampires was not exclusively dependent on humans dying. It was the conclusion I had been hoping for ever since learning that I, although undeniably a vampire, felt no inherent desire for human blood. However, I was no longer so naive nor so idealistic as to believe that a simple colloquy would be sufficient to bring about the change I envisioned.

So I drew upon five years of study and research to find a way to wake the dead cells. Or, rather, awake enough to think that human blood was poisonous. I began to devise a formula that would act as a virus and incite an allergic reaction. Once I had a recipe worked out, all I needed was somewhere to test it. Teddy, poor fellow, didn't suspect a thing. I'd required that he fast for a few days in an effort to get the majority of blood out of his system, which he did, obligingly, before I fed him the formula. It took him almost an hour to die, screaming bloody murder all the while, as his cells began rejecting each other. About ten minutes into his reaction, I force-fed him a few milliliters of blood, first animal, then human. The animal blood seemed to have no effect but the human vastly exacerbated his demise. Fifty-two minutes after consuming the formula, Teddy collapsed into dust.

I felt a little guilty, both for using him and for inadvertently killing him, but I'd learned something valuable. Given his reaction to human blood despite being in the throws of agony, my formula was at least on the right track. I also learned that the solution was much too volatile and indiscriminatory. It could distinguish between animal and human, but not human and vampire. It was an interesting philosophical and moral discovery. I hadn't ever set out to kill vampires. For all that I felt no kinship with them, they were still, after a fashion, alive and, if the formula was to be believed, much more closely related to humans than I had presumed from cellular analysis. If a few had to die, however, for a working, non-lethal formula to be perfected that was a price I was prepared to pay.

Six months and nine more variations of the formula later, I had allowed myself to be cornered by a particularly nasty specimen. He liked his prey frightened and it wasn't hard to oblige him as I ironically begged for my life. I still hadn't managed to stop the formula from killing my test subjects. However, when he leaned, gleeful, over me for dinner, and I was milliseconds away from filling his mouth with Formula 10, there was a muffled shot and his face was torn away.

As he staggered to assess this new threat with only one eye and half a face, I quickly took stock of the situation. We were surrounded by seven or eight black-garbed humans, all carrying an assortment of weapons and looking less frightened of the angry vampire than I was. One was holding a silenced pistol that was clearly the source of the first shot and and, as I watched, he emptied an entire clip at point-blank range.

My former test subject had the advantage of speed but was impaired from the first shot so the majority of the bullets connected, tearing off a good chunk of skull and severing his right arm from his shoulder. He roared, but another of the humans had taken the gunman's place and was now wielding what seemed to be a knife hilt without a blade. The next moment the vampire's head toppled from what was left of its neck and the body was obscured from my view as all but one of the humans swarmed over the corpse. I was stunned, not only did these people have a gun that could severely injure a vampire, but they also had some sort of blade that would slice through our skin. Both of these feats I'd thought impossible not two minutes previously. I didn't have to be a genius to conclude that I would be more than mostly dead if these insane humans found out I was kin to the vampire they'd just destroyed.

A girl approached me; the one who'd decapitated the vampire. She put her hand on my arm in what I guess was supposed to be a comforting gesture.

"You okay?" She had a soft voice, entirely out of sync with what I'd expect of a human willing to take on a vampire. "You look pretty shaken up." Yeah. Because I'd just seen a couple of humans discombobulate a vampire in under a minute. I didn't understand how she could be so blasé about it. While I thought of what to say I noticed that her pals had completely disassembled him and were now tossing body parts into an empty trashcan and dousing them in what looked to be lighter fluid. I shivered, but it wasn't just an act.

"Here," she handed me a pill and a bottle of water from goodness knows where, "Swallow this, it will help you calm down. That must have been pretty frightening." She sure sounded calm. Even her suggestion that I might be frightened was delivered in a perfectly lyrical monotone. Like a shrink. A thought which didn't exactly inspire trust. I looked at the pill in my hand.

"What is it?"

She frowned, as if I wasn't the one supposed to be asking questions, and gave me what she must have thought was sufficiently scientific and incomprehensible that I wouldn't ask any more. "It's a dose beta-endorphin and norepinephrine inhibitor. It will make you happier and more relaxed. Nothing too serious. Just clear your terrified expression and your racing pulse."

She clearly knew nothing about my racing pulse or my level of education. If I was human and swallowed that pill, I'd calm down all right. Calm down and forget the whole experience. Or at least that was the theory. Amnesia was, last I read, still a bit of a sticky topic. If she and her vampire-slaying pals were using it to wipe the memories of would-be victims then they must be pretty confident that it worked. Of course, it probably didn't work on vampires, but given how human I was trying to be at that moment I wasn't about to take my chances.

"No thanks, I'll be okay in a few minutes." I did try to be polite. Subtlety had never been my forte, and though it was a quality I'd been working on since dying, I was still lacking.

"Really, I think you should; you'll feel so much better!" But her benevolent smile had become brittle, and she stepped closer as if she could force me to take it.

"I already feel loads better, look," and I smiled to show the truth of my words, but she scowled in return, and called out for one of the men behind her, Ram. I turned to see someone drop a match into the trashcan, which flared up five feet behind them, then walk towards us, a black silhouette against the flame.

"What's up Lacey?" When he finally came into range of the streetlights he had his hands stuffed into his pockets and looked as easy as she had before I'd refused to be drugged.

"I'm Eagle, you _ass_, we're keeping street names until _off the street_, remember?"

Her voice had become less saccharine, but he looked less than remorseful.

That was interesting. Both his irreverence and her admonishment spoke not only of an undefined hierarchy in their group but also its relative newness.

"She doesn't want the pill." The smirk that flew across his face was gone in an instant, and then he was looking at me with a concerned look.

"Why not? I can vouch for it, it's perfectly safe."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yes, perfectly safe if I want to forget everything I've seen tonight. You must take me for a complete ignoramus. I'm about to become some vampire's bloodshake when you and your band of merry men swoop in, cut the thing to pieces and burn the evidence - and you think I'll happily swallow a little white pill just because you 'vouched for it'? Give me a break."

The man's grin wasn't imaginary; it subsequently stretched comfortably from ear to ear. I slipped the pill delicately into my pocket, slow enough so as to be inconspicuous. "How's that, Lace? I told you some people would be leery about taking drugs from a bunch of black bandits." He looked at me. "I can vouch for it because I invented it. I'm impressed you recognized it for what it really is, though. What's your training?"

I pursed my lips, intrigued, but trying not to show it. "Biochemistry."

He nodded as if that were a perfectly logical explanation for recognizing attempted induced-amnesia. "Right, well sorry about that, then." He noticed Lacey's glare. "What? It's not like we can force-feed it to her."

One of the other people came up behind Ram, saying that everything was wrapped up, ready to go. Lacey stalked off immediately, but Ram stayed, as if he were deliberating over something.

"Do you want to... come back to base with me? I know you've probably got family or whatever and are too busy to run off and join a secret organisation of vampire hunters, but... if you're not, it's been a very long time since I've had anyone in my lab who could really understand my work."

It was too perfect. An invitation to scope out a human-run initiative against vampires and I hadn't even had to manipulate anyone to get it.

"I'm actually between jobs at the moment." A small lie, I was rather too busy for a job, but my own research could wait. "I'd love to come check out what you're working on. I wasn't aware that the research on endorphins disrupting the consolidation of recent memories had been finalised, when did that happen?"

"Officially? It hasn't. It was originally going to be my thesis topic, but then the military got too interested so I switched tacks entirely and wrote about viruses spread by hematophagous organisms. They lost interest pretty quick."

"What, not up for giving the government access to instant amnesia?"

"In the larger scheme of things, it didn't seem healthy for humanity."

"Well that's big of you. And now you're working with vampires? They're hematophagous organisms, technically. That's vaguely related, I suppose." He motioned to follow him, and we exited the alley.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm working on a theory of vampirism as a virus. I mean, there must be some sort of fluid exchange, since it's when people aren't completely sucked dry that they turn into vampires themselves, so, assuming that this fluid exists, it must be what infects people." Hm.

"No offense to your grand theory and everything, but doesn't that seem kind of obvious? Unless, of course, there are people who have been bitten by vampires and retain their humanity and we just never hear about it... But since that seems unlikely, then the only thing that would stop a bitten human from becoming vampires themselves is death. So this virus idea seems the only answer."

"I suppose... but if this venom exists and I could get a sample of it, I could look at ways to reverse it or to create a vaccine."

I nodded. This guy was fascinating. I'd been looking at the problem from the opposite perspective, looking to implement a change in the vampires, he was thinking about a change in humans. His line about venom made me stop, however. It made sense for vampirism to be passed along as a poison, and given the changes it inspired at a cellular level, virus was pretty accurate. I could recall the burning in my veins as I died, and that fit with the theory. It also demanded another question; did _I_ have venom? I'd never bitten or wanted to bite anyone, so it had never really occurred to me, but maybe that was the key to making a functional formula. I reigned in my thoughts when I noticed that he had stopped and was giving me a strange look.

"Are you sure you're okay with this? Usually people aren't this level-headed after having nearly been a - how did you phrase it - blood milkshake?"

Oops. I shrugged and lied. "I think better when I'm stressed." Well, not entirely a lie. I just wasn't feeling stress at that particular moment in time.

We stopped outside a large black van with tinted windows. Gawd, talk about cliché. The door swung open and in the dim street light Lacey's pale face could be seen glaring from the dark confines.

"Jared, _what_ is she doing here? We've got to get out of this area, this is _not_ the time for socialising! Just get her number and let's get out of here!"

Ram, now Jared, offered me a hand up into the van. "She's coming with us; budge up." We settled up against the wall closest to the doors.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! No, no, a thousand times no! Where is she going to sleep? We can't afford to feed another mouth; did you look at all past her pretty face? We don't know anything about her; do you even know her name?"

"Lace -" one of the other men spoke up, "just leave it." And he reached over to slide the door closed as the van started to drive.

Lacey's point about names was a good one, if irritatingly delivered. "I'm Jasmine." I told them. There was a murmur from the humans seated around me, and then Jared nudged my shoulder. I turned and he took my hand. I put a conscious effort into keeping it the appropriate temperature.

"Hello Jasmine, I'm Jared. Great to meet you." "You didn't--" Began Lacey angrily, but Jared interrupted her. "And she's Lacey. She's not usually this rude, I apologize."

Someone on the other side of the van snorted. My vision, though less sharp than usual, could still, in the near complete darkness, make out broad shoulders and a thick beard with deep-set eyes. "She must be another little geek to work in the labs. Jared, you sure know how to pick 'em. Why don't I ever get any weapons' specialists? Martial arts experts? We only ever seem to collect stray science dweebs."

The man beside him laughed. "Don't let 'landy hear you say that."

"And don't let Yolanda hear you calling her 'landy." The first one replied. Laughter went around the circle. Jared smiled at the joke. "Jasmine, meet my delightful companions. The one discriminatory of our noble art is Pat, his slandering accomplice is Amrit, Alonso's driving, and the ones who haven't spoken are Marcus and Lennon, but he we mostly we call John."

"Which isn't actually my name." Lennon sounded tiredly irritated, as though this was an old argument.

Jared shrugged beside me. "You were named after John Lennon, man, you should be proud to go by either name."

"So why does Pat get to go by whatever name he likes?" Pat made a warning noise in the back of his throat.

"Because Pat is bigger than I am and much more likely to do me lasting harm for calling him otherwise. That should have been obvious." There was an awkwardness to this conversation that probably wouldn't have been a good start to my initiation with the group. I cut in.

"Lacey, Pat, Amrit, Marcus, Alonso, Lennon," I stressed the last name, "it's nice to meet you. So what do you guys _do_, exactly." It had seemed like the natural question to be asking at this point.

"We kill vampires," answered Pat. "But since you're sitting here alive and un-undead, I'm sure a smart little thing like you's figured that out."

Clearly the man had no interest in subtlety. Well that was fine, because I wasn't so great at that myself. "You're right. 'Smart little thing' that I am, I'm also wondering how a group such as yourselves can afford silenced automatic pistols, materials to make - never mind develop - complex psychopharmaceuticals, and what looked like an stabilised laser knife. My question was not simply what is it you do, it was how and why you're doing it. I didn't know that 'vampire hunter' was a socially acceptable career choice."

"Then you'll understand," Lacey bit out, "that until we know how long you're staying - and why you would want to join us - it would be unwise to tell you anything more about our operations than you already know." She finished with a glare at Jared.

"We have a... benefactor." He said by way of response. "And we're all here for different reasons, though for many of us they involve just being in the wrong place at the right time."

"Like me." I said needlessly. It had been what he was implying, after all. "How long have you been together, this 'operation'?" I intentionally used Lacey's word with a little bit of mockery in my tone. It didn't seem to bother Jared and she had rubbed me the wrong way.

"Almost a year," answered Lennon, "and you're more than welcome to join us; I'm sick of being the newest member." Perhaps another reason they needled him about his name. Well that was okay; I could handle being a newbie. The question was whether or not I could handle being human. I'd only ever pushed my abilities for hours at a time, and it required a certain level of conscious focus. This would be a challenge.

"And where do you all live? Jared implied that having a family would be an inconvenience, do you have a kind of headquarters?" My mind was supplying me with images of the Batcave and I was firmly ignoring it.

"We live in a castle." Marcus spoke for the first time. His voice was quiet and rather feminine-sounding. He didn't look much older than I had been when I was changed. My eyebrows raised. Jared laughed at my expression, though I didn't know how well he could see it in the darkness. Maybe he'd been reacting to the movement of my face.

"We just call it the Castle," he elucidated, "it's more of a tower, really."

"You have your headquarters in a tower?"

"Yes. Our benefactor is known for being a little eccentric. She designed it herself." He paused. "Of course no one knows that the tower actually extends three floors into the hill, or that two of those floors are made up of various laboratories, _or_ that she's carefully cultivated her reputation, but that suits us just fine." Lacey was glaring again.

"_Enough_, Jared!"

"What is it, Lace? We found her a couple of inches from being dinner, scared out of her mind, and you think there's reason not to trust her?"

It was laughable. Delightfully. They found me inches from (likely) killing the vampire they dispatched for me moments later, I _was_ a vampire, and now I was trying to infiltrate their vampire-hunting organisation. Fortunately I'd never had a very prominent sense of humour. My face remained impassive.

"That she can be nearly eaten and sit here calmly twenty minutes later discussing our operations, yes, I think that's a little suspicious."

Pat chuckled. "And you're certain it's got nothing to do with Jared taking a shine to 'er, eh, Lace?"

The Glare subsequently found a new target.

There would be no love between Lacey and I, but in this case she was in the right. Also, however trusting Jared was of fellow scientists, it was likely that the others were harbouring similar feelings of distrust. So I gave them their desired chance to test me. Or at least assuage their doubts.

"Actually, I think Lacey's right." Lacey's glare vanished and she looked sharply at me. "I imagine that hunting vampires has a rather high level of risk. Despite my own curiosity, I can understand why you wouldn't want to be too forthcoming with information. We can wait until we get to your castle, and then I'll do whatever I can to ease your doubts."

"Excellent, thank-you." And Lacey actually looked grateful. Jared opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "Just save it 'til we're home, okay, Jared?" And so the car lapsed into silence.

The lights flashing past the windows gradually grew fewer and fewer until they came only once every ten or twenty yards. Marcus was snoozing in the corner and Alonso had turned on the radio. Even with my superior hearing the concerto playing was still faint. At last the ground beneath us began to slope, and I assumed that we were nearly arrived. Jared had said that the Castle was on a hill, after all. Not ten minutes later we began to gear down, and my ears rang a little in the sudden silence when the engine was turned off. We must be miles from the city if all I could hear was the breathing of the people around me and a light conversation in a building nearby.

Getting out of the car it became apparent just where the conversation was coming from. It was a tower. Very large, maybe a hundred feet in diameter, it rose four stories in an almost perfect column. Its cylindrical shape was broken only by windows, one visible balcony, and a spiral fire escape that wound up the circumference. In the shadows it looked particularly imposing.

I was uncomfortably cognizant of being flanked by seven black-garbed near-strangers who could take out a hungry vampire without breaking a sweat. Willingly walking into their territory seemed to be either genius or idiocy. Gathering my resolve and my appreciation for the irony, I stepped forward into the humans' den.

* * *

_A/N: I've been fiddling with this for a while now, debating whether or not to post it. This story just feels so indulgent. I've been shackled to Electromagnetism for so long that actually starting another story seems deliciously naughty. Starting another story where I borrow the decent bits of Stephanie Meyer's mythos and use them for awesome seems purely hedonistic. I'm writing the Twilight-inspired story that I would want to read. Whether anyone else will be interested, who can say? If you are, I'd be delighted to know._


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